


Memories

by 1BitFlower



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Childhood Friends, Confessions, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Happy Ending, Love Confessions, M/M, Next Door Neighbours
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-29
Updated: 2019-12-29
Packaged: 2021-02-19 08:48:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22008298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1BitFlower/pseuds/1BitFlower
Summary: Jisung and Minho had been close since either could remember. Their days always spent running around anywhere and everywhere together.Still, some things have always went unspoken and now as Minho is leaving for college, he's scared they'll remain that way.Thank god, he keeps his trusty memory box.Or: the Minsung Childhood Friends AU that nobody asked for, but that I will provide regardless!
Relationships: Han Jisung | Han/Lee Minho | Lee Know
Comments: 14
Kudos: 114





	Memories

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first fic I'm posting here, kinda nervous, but I had a dream about this prompt so I had to do something about it! I'm new to posting on Ao3 so if the tags or anything else are absolutely horrid, my deepest apologies.

The sun seeped through the window, gently caressing Jisung's face as he slowly stirred from his sleep. He looked at the clock beside him, it was only 9 a.m. However, he dashed out of bed without thinking twice, still in nothing but a shirt (which was most likely, not his, seeing as it was a bit bigger than what he usually wore) and some sweatpants. He put on his flip flops and without even greeting his mother, speed-walked his way to his neighbour's house.

He let out a sigh of relief as he saw Minho standing outside, examining a few boxes carefully. The older looked back at him and raised an eyebrow before making his way over there and ruffling his hair (as if it wasn't already messy enough). 

"What's up, Sung? You look quite disturbed," he teased, although the lilt of worry in his voice did nothing but make his heartbeat speed up.

"I couldn't remember when you were leaving, so I was scared you weren't here already," he muttered. 

"Silly, I'd never leave without saying goodbye to you first," Minho smiled sadly at him.

Jisung stayed silent, he refused to cry no matter how much he wanted to at the moment.

"Do you really have to go to college that far away?" Jisung pouted. 

"It's only 5 hours away," he bit his lip. Who was he kidding? 5 hours away? He didn't wanna leave either, but getting into the place he had always dreamt of? He would feel eternally guilty if he didn't take the chance and despite his whining, Jisung would surely kill him too if he didn't go. "I'll try to visit every other weekend, we'll talk every day on the phone, alright?" Minho said. Jisung just hummed, seeming a bit calmer now, simply swaying from side to side along with the breeze.  
He looked back at Minho for a second, debating whether or not he wanted to ask something.

"When are you leaving?" he didn't know if he wanted an answer. If he was ready for one.

"Tomorrow, sadly," we'll spend today and until I have to leave just the two of us, right?" he already knew the answer would be yes, but there was still a slight feeling of anxiety creeping around and settling itself in his gut. 

"Of course, I'm gonna cling to you like a leech!" he announced quite cheerfully. Minho didn't know whether to smile or be taken aback by the stars shimmering in Jisung's eyes. He settled for a mix of both.

Jisung looked around at the boxes behind him, they seemed to be ready to depart already. Out of the ordinary cardboard boxes, stood out a particular one that seemed quite worn out. It sported badly painted sunflowers and blue skies that poorly blended with the yellows and green in the box. 

Jisung couldn't help but smile, he and Minho had been friends for as long as he could remember. First meeting when Jisung was at the tender age of 6 and had just moved into the neighbourhood. Minho, the kind soul he was, offered to show him around and one afternoon playing around under the blazing summer sun later, they had become attached at the hip since. 

He remembered the day vividly, during his 7th birthday, he had gotten some acrylic paint and hurriedly dashed to knock on Minho's door.   
As soon as it opened, he couldn't contain his excitement, only managing to get out a 'good evening Mrs Lee!' before he was trudging his way upstairs into his best friend's room. 

_"Minho! Look, look!" he yelled as he waved the plastic bag in the air. The other looked startled for a second, before smiling at his friend._

_"What's up, Sung?" he got up from his bed where he was playing with his Nintendo.  
The younger shoved the plastic bag in front of him, allowing him to look inside._

_"I got acrylic paint for my birthday!" he said with a toothy grin._

_"It's your birthday!? You never told me, you big meanie! I would've gotten you something," he pouted, seemingly devastated._

_"Don't worry! We can do something together, let's paint something!" Jisung said._

_Minho, of course, was still young and the concept of feelings was very foreign to him. What they had, could not yet be called love, but the joy he felt at getting to spend time with Jisung, and more, at the fact that even when Minho had forgotten his birthday (well, the youngest had never told him), he was still so bright, made Minho's heart swell with something akin to adoration._

_They looked around for a while, searching for the perfect thing to paint, until they found an unused cardboard box. After asking Minho's parents for permission, they grabbed some paintbrushes and got straight to work. Neither of them really knew how to paint, but between their random bouts of laughter and throwing paint at each other, the result didn't really matter. Jisung had never been happier, every moment spent with Minho always left him feeling overjoyed._

_In the end, they had managed to fill every possible surface of the object with sunflowers and even a blue, cloudless sky. Both boys stared at their creation, faces stained with various shades and wide smiles. Everything was perfect._

"You kept the box?" he asked, feeling slightly emotional all of a sudden.

"Yeah, I call it my memory box," Minho admitted proudly.

"Memory box? What do you keep in there?" Jisung asked.

"Memories. Isn't it obvious?" Minho replied with a serious face. Jisung lightly hit his arm.

"Yeah! No shit, Min! You know what I meant," the youngest whined.

Suddenly, Minho looked uncharacteristically embarrassed. The dancer looking at his feet, picking at his nails as if they were the most interesting thing in there. The silence dragged on for a while, until Minho finally found the courage to speak up.

"I keep memories of the two of us in there," he mumbled. 

Jisung's heart did somersaults in his chest and he was positive that for a few seconds, he stopped breathing altogether. He really did love Minho, not that it took him that long to figure out, well, maybe it did, but who's keeping track? (Jisung, Jisung is).

"Can I take a look?" Jisung asked carefully. 

"Of course you can, they're your memories just as much as they're mine," Minho beamed at him. "We can both go and take a look at what's in there!" 

So that's exactly what they did, both boys waddling over to the box. Jisung didn't waste a second before throwing it open. It was absolutely jam-packed with things. Some of them making him smile slightly, just an upturn of his lips, while others made him outright gasp in delight. He ran his hands through some of the less important (not that any of his memories with Minho weren't important. Whatever, he didn't owe anyone an explanation!) stuff, like a random comic. He remembered they read it together on one of their many sleepovers. There was also a 4-leaf-clover inside a small plastic container. It was the very first they had found and after lots of bickering, Jisung had insisted Minho keep it, using the excuse that Minho was a lot unluckier than Jisung was.

His eyes landed on a plushie that took up quite a bit of space. It was an adorable cat plushie, Soonie, they had named it. Minho had then come to name his very first cat just that, in honour of the plushie Jisung had gifted him on his 10th birthday. He picked it up, gently cradling it in his arms.

"I thought you would've given this away with your other stuffed toys by now," Jisung said, running his fingers through its cute face, there was an eye missing, but it looked just as endearing as when he had originally gotten it, if not more, now that the years had passed and its sentimental value had only grown.

"Don't think I'd ever be able to, means too much," Minho said. _Everything you give me means more than it probably should_ , Minho wanted to add, but he figured it was too late for confessions now that they were about to depart.

Jisung put the toy back where it belonged and showed him one of those smiles he loved, a soft one, not too wide, not too full of energy. A smile that made warmth spread throughout Minho's body, filling him with a deep sense of completion.

He continued analysing the contents of the box. A pretty ladybug, or an attempt at one, that they had carved out of wood during a summer camp program, friendship bracelets they had made together during a boring evening.

He moved onto a polaroid they had taken together. That was the day Minho came out to him, when Jisung was 14. 

_Jisung ran all the way to the park where Minho had asked them to meet. He was quite breathless, but he couldn't wait to spend time with his favourite person in the whole wide world. He had brought everything, which really was only his wallet so they could buy ice cream and his polaroid camera in case he saw anything particularly interesting._

_When Jisung found his best friend, he was at their usual place, they had found a part of the park that was considerably secluded and had claimed it as theirs from then onward. Minho looked strangely agitated, eyes darting back and forward until they fell on Jisung's figure to which he decided the best course of action was to look down at the ground. Rather than agitated, his friend looked almost...ashamed._

_"Jisung," he started when the other stopped in front of him, frown etched on his face. His voice was slightly hoarse, only making the worry in Jisung's heart bubble up faster._

_"Min? What's wrong, are you ok?" he wasted no time asking._

_"I," he began "I have something to tell you, and I'm really scared," he confessed. They had always been painfully honest with each other. "Sit down with me please?"_

_So Jisung did, he sat next to him, silently waiting for his friend to continue._

_"Please don't hate me after this," Minho's voice shook as he spoke. Jisung was beyond concerned, he just wanted to hold the other in his arms and tell him that nothing he did could possibly make him hate the older. Still, Jisung nodded at him, knowing that belting out a poetic speech about how he'd never leave him would only make Minho more anxious._

_"Jisung, I," he took a deep breath before finishing the sentence, "I like boys."_

_There it was. The truth he had tried so hard to tell Jisung for the past 7 months since he had figured it out one late night.  
Jisung looked at him as if he was expecting something more. When all Minho did was stare back at him, he realised that. Oh. Minho liked boys, that was all. _

_He took out his polaroid camera, Minho was quite familiar with it. They had taken countless photos together. He was quite confused when Jisung aimed the camera at them and took a photo._

_"Jisung?" Minho's face was confused as he stared at him with wide eyes._

_"I don't mind the fact you like boys, Minho, you'll always be my best friend," somehow saying that didn't sound as right anymore. Best friends? Jisung thought they were far past that point, but there was no appropriate label.  
In no time, the photo was done developing and he handed it to Minho. The youngest was smiling brightly, whereas the other was looking at the camera surprised, eyes slightly glassy. _

_"See? You look the same as always," Jisung said. "You're still Minho. Still my best friend," he grinned._

_Minho had started bawling his eyes out, endless streams of "Thank you for accepting me"'s and "you're the best"'s falling from his lips like it was all he knew.  
Jisung enveloped him in a bone-crushing hug and offered to buy him ice-cream as a celebration to their everlasting friendship._

_"Have you told your parents yet?" he asked once Minho had calmed down._

_"Not yet, I'll do it today. I'm scared though," he sighed._

_"It'll be ok, I'll go with you if you want," Jisung smiled._

_"Nah, it's ok, this is something I need to do myself," he said._

_And Minho didn't know it yet, but it would go just fine._

"This photo sure brings back memories, huh?" Jisung laughed.

"You're such a weirdo, there I was opening up to you and you decide the best thing to do was take a photo. Do you know how scared I was? For a second, I thought you'd hit me with the camera," Minho replied exasperated.

"It was the best course of action," Jisung smiled smugly.

Minho shoved him aside, but couldn't stop the smile forming on his face either.

They dug around for a while longer, Jisung stopped moving once his eyes caught sight of a particular object.

"Is that the necklace I gave you ages ago?" he asked. 

"It sure is, you never let me wear it, it's a shame!" Minho fell to the side dramatically. 

"Because it looks atrocious!" he laughed, although he was quite flustered now. Minho didn't know the meaning behind that necklace.

_Coming to terms with liking boys wasn't as simple as he'd hoped for. It started with subtle things, like feeling weird whenever Minho was around. It progressed to his heart beating faster when he smiled, or his stomach filling with butterflies when their hands touched.  
Jisung brushed it all off as being sick, but when you're 'sick' for about 10 months straight, it gets a bit hard to ignore._

_Then, one night, during a sleepover, just as they were about to drift off to sleep. Jisung fought off the desire to close his eyes and looked at Minho on the other side of the bed. His eyes were closed and his expression was the most peaceful he had ever seen in his life. He had never taken the time to truly admire him, Minho was usually the last to fall asleep and the first to wake up.  
From the way his chest slowly rose up and down, Jisung could tell the other was asleep. He looked breathtaking. _

_The youngest ran his hand through Minho's hair gently, afraid that if he moved the wrong way, the other would wake up. That's when a thought made him pull his hand away as if he had been burnt._

_Suddenly, he really, really wanted to kiss his best friend. Actually kiss, like, on the lips. That was a scary thought, Jisung wanted to brush it away, but then his hand trailed along Minho's face all the way down until his fingers brushed against the other's soft lips. And just like that, it didn't take him any longer to figure out that maybe, he was in love with his best friend.  
The next day, he had fully accepted his fate, because Jisung, was not one to ponder things that were clearly obvious for long._

_So that's how no more than 3 days later, he spent the whole day carving Minho's name in wood, something they had done so often when they were kids. He wasn't as good as he used to be, but it was meaningful. The letters weren't perfect, but his newfound feelings had propelled him to just do something for the older. Even if he didn't have the guts to tell him yet, he needed something that would convey his love for him subtly. So what better than a heartfelt gift?_

_The necklace wasn't that pretty in Jisung's opinion, but he had spent so long on it, he might as well just give it to him anyway._

_He stood outside of Minho's door, a bit more nervous than he needed to be in his humble opinion. This was just a gift. Just a gift, Jisung!_

_Well, no it wasn't, it was more like an indirect confession of his love, but who cares, right?_

_"What's up Ji?" Minho asked, raising a brow at him. He wasn't expecting his visit, but then again, they popped by each other's places whenever they felt like it. Perks of being next-door neighbours._

_Jisung didn't miss a beat as he held the necklace out for Minho to take._

_"I uh, made this. For you," he stumbled over his words but hoped the other didn't notice. If he did, Jisung mentally thanked him for not mentioning it._

_"Oh?" he said as he took the accessory, a smile growing on his face with each passing second. "May I ask why? I didn't forget a special anniversary or something, did I?" he sounded positively scared as he finished his sentence._

_"No, no, no!" Jisung was quick to reassure him. "I just felt like it. Wanted to try carving wood again like the good old times," he laughed nervously. "So, yeah, that's what I decided to make. Since you're my bestest friend in the world and all,"_

_"Oh, thank you so much! I love it Jisung!" he said, radiating. They looked at each other in silence for a few seconds before Minho asked, "So you wanna carve wood together then? Like the good old times?" he laughed._

_'No actually,' Jisung thought. He had spent the whole day carving wood when he didn't even like it that much anymore. Still, there was something about the way his body and mind were wired that made him physically incapable of turning Minho down._

_"Yeah! I'd love that," Jisung replied, a stupid smile on his face._

_The next day, when Minho had arrived at school wearing that same necklace, Jisung almost had a heart attack._

_"Why are you wearing that here?! It's atrocious, oh my god, you're gonna get bullied!"_

_"For wearing my best friend's hand-made necklace? Try me!" he replied mirthfully._

_"Lee Minho! Take that off right now, you're so embarrassing," Jisung had begged._

_Just a few months later, when he was 15, he came out to Minho himself, tears of joy spilling out of his eyes even if he already knew the other would accept him._

Eventually, he did convince Minho to stop wearing that necklace, but he didn't think he'd _keep it_. The realisation made him let out a breath he didn't even know he had been holding. 

Suddenly, he was regretting never confessing. Wondered if maybe, just maybe, Minho felt the same about him. They had been through a lot, it was astounding how they had never even tried it out.

Then he saw it, something he had desperately tried to push to the back of his mind, even if that was proved impossible by the fact he reminisced what had happened just around a year ago, when he was 16, _at least_ once every 4 months.  
The pretty paper heart origami stood proudly, buried under a bunch of other things, but still visible to Jisung. He picked it up carefully.

"This is..." he trailed off. Minho looked at what he had in his hands and looked a bit lost himself.

"Yeah, it is," he muttered almost inaudibly. 

_Jisung had come to terms with his crush on Minho. Which is why he thought the only thing to do about it, was to fall in love with someone else. Thus, began his tireless search for someone he could fall for! An epic quest that took no longer than 2 weeks. He wasn't being very picky, because quite frankly, no one would ever be as good as his best friend._

_So that's how he found himself being glued to a nice enough boy from his class. He wasn't sure if he was straight or not, but as long as he took his mind off of Minho, then it'd do, right?_

_A few weeks passed by, Minho less than happy with having his best friend stolen from him. For about a month or two, Jisung was scared that maybe this was it. They'd drift apart like so many friends had. They barely went over to each other's houses, stopped talking at school (courtesy of Jisung always being busy with his new friend) and although Jisung still liked Minho, he thought perhaps, he was starting to like his new friend too._

_He didn't know what had suddenly come over him, but one day, during their last class, which was much to his delight Art, he decided to make a paper heart origami. He picked the colour pink, even though his friend's favourite colour was purple._

_If he picked pink because it was Minho's favourite colour, no one needed to know._

_He poured his art into that paper heart, making sure it was perfect. He had never dared to confess to Minho, so he didn't know why he was doing this all of a sudden, but he figured he'd just be thankful for the sudden burst of courage._

_See, though, things don't exactly go as planned. Actually, they crash and burn and fall apart, because as he was turning a corner, searching for him, he heard the sound of his heart cracking. His friend was kissing a girl, quite a pretty one at that too. Why would Jisung even assume he liked boys? He never even showed interest in him aside from wanting to be friends._

_Regardless of that, Jisung ran all the way back home, tears spilling down his face endlessly. He found himself in front of Minho's house as he had many times in the past (although, probably not in such circumstances).  
Pounding on the door harshly, he could barely contain the sobs wracking through his body._

_The door was thrown open soon enough, thankfully by Minho himself, who he took no time to cling onto._

_"Min, I can't fucking believe I was so stupid," he sobbed into his chest. Minho was extremely shocked, but immediately led him to his bedroom, closing the door softly behind him and sitting him down on his bed._

_"Sungie? What's wrong? Are you ok?" Minho sounded positively terrified, taking a seat next to Jisung himself and wrapping his arm around the other's shoulders._

_"I thought I liked a boy, but today I saw him kissing a girl," he said after he had calmed down a bit, only a few tears slipping past his eyes._

_"You thought?" Minho questioned._

_"I don't know, I think I wanted to be in love, but it hurt regardless," he explained._

_That was a lie, he had probably been in love from the moment he met Minho. Not that he needed to know._

_Jisung played with the paper heart in his hands, having calmed down fully thanks to Minho's sweet whispers. He looked at Minho who was studying him with a worried expression._

_He handed him the heart, the other looked confused._

_"I was going to give it to him, but I think it's only fitting I hand it to you instead, since you always put up with me and you still welcomed me in here with open arms, even after I ignored you," he stopped for a second, "I'm so sorry," he whimpered._

_Minho took the heart and looked at it in awe. He looked back at Jisung, love swimming in his eyes, not that the younger guessed what it was._

_"I'm sorry for what I'm about to do," Minho said._

_Jisung didn't have time to ask him what he meant before a pair of soft lips were crashing against his.  
Much like Minho himself, his kisses were soft, Jisung never really had any experience with kissing, but he could tell the older was good. In fact, Jisung thought Minho might as well be the best and only kisser in the world since he was the only one he wanted, any thoughts of his fleeting crush on his classmate forgotten.   
It didn't take long for them to pull away, Minho was already terrified as was so he didn't even entertain the thought of deepening it. _

_"Woah," Jisung sighed breathlessly. Yeah, nice going, 'Woah' is what you say after your best friend kisses you?_

_He didn't have time to beat himself up anymore as they met in the middle, gently moving against each other as if they had done it millions of times before._

They never talked about it after that. Afraid that their relationship would change, although that was in vain. Whether they wanted it or not, there was definitely a shift in their friendship. Stares and touches that lingered on for too long, frequent kisses on their faces (except for their lips, a place they firmly avoided) and late-night conversations that hit a bit too close to home.   
Why they never talked it out was a mystery to Jisung, actually, it seemed outright stupid to him now. 

Jisung had never been one to ponder things that were clearly obvious to him for long, which is why he decided, he was going to stop caring about whether they'd cross a line on their friendship or not. They'd definitely crossed several lines over the years, now that he thought about it. Constantly teetering between the edges of friendship or something more, so what was there to be afraid of now? A lot, Jisung considered, but he momentarily forgot about that as he focused on the task at hand.

"Min," he called gently.

"Yeah?" the other replied, breathless.

"Why did we never talk about what happened?" he asked the older.

"I don't know Jisung," he replied sadly.

"Well, I think we should," Jisung said boldly. Minho looked at him shocked, maybe even speechless.

"What?" 

"I love you," Jisung blurted. He had always dreamed of giving Minho the proper confession he deserved. Something beautiful, carefully planned out, topped with roses and chocolate and the sweetest of words. Maybe even write him a song, but now, as he clumsily sputtered whatever words came onto his brain, he couldn't be happier with the outcome. He'd finally done it.

If Minho wasn't speechless before, he sure was now, his eyes were glassy, although tears refused to spill past them. He took a while to process what his best friend had just told him, which probably didn't make Jisung feel very at ease.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't ha-" Jisung didn't have time to finish his sentence as Minho pulled him closer, hugging him tighter than he ever had. 

"I love you too, I love you so much Jisung, I was always so scared that I'd leave without telling you how much you mean to me. That you'd find someone else when I was gone," he babbled in a single breath, a few tears that Jisung wiped away streaming down his face. 

Jisung hugged him back just as hard, feeling the happiest he ever had in years. They stood there in silence, just taking each other's presence in.

"So what does this make us?" Jisung shyly asked.

"I don't know, boyfriends?" he asked carefully.

"That sounds lovely," Jisung smiled. It was the brightest smile Jisung had ever shown him and Minho decided on the spot that it was also now his favourite. 

"What about you going to college?" Jisung asked, feeling scared for a moment. 

"Come on! I told you earlier that we're gonna keep in touch, I'll call you every single day to tell you I love you," he smiled.

"I love you so much," Jisung said.

"I know, you've told me. I love you too," he leaned in to kiss him. "I missed that a lot," Minho said.

"Me too," Jisung laughed. 

For the second time that day, he was taken aback by the stars shining tirelessly in his boyfriend's eyes. The fact that he could finally call Jisung his made his heart soar in his chest and even though it took them years to get where they were now, he wouldn't trade it for the world.

**Author's Note:**

> And wow! Just like that, it's done! Leave some kudos if you're feeling generous, leave a comment if you're feeling even MORE generous!  
> Thank you so much for reading it all!


End file.
